AI offers Golf Fans More Information at the 152nd Open Championship in Scotland
Digital twins, AI innovations, a private 5G network and a ShotView bring fans exceptional tournament experiences.
The fan experience at the 152nd Open Championship, which will be held at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland from July 14-21, is set to further engage fans and immerse them even deeper into the tournament no matter where they are, according to NTT DATA, official IT provider of The Open.
Fans will be able to benefit from real-time data and smart information as well as video and data displays on a wall. They will also be able to experience GenAI-powered digital human technology and interact with ShotView, a digital twin platform. Behind these enhancements is a private 5G network that ensures the complex technologies can access the fastest, most resilient and secure network available.
NTT DATA Wall
On site, a 20-metre-wide LED screen in the spectator village with Hollywood-quality CGI enables unique fan interactions with “The Open”. Exciting data and statistics on the position of the ball are rendered in real time and displayed alongside vivid visualizations. The hyper-realistic rendering delivers lifelike lighting conditions, shadows and textures down to the blade of grass.
Lottie, an AI-supported digital human
The AI-powered digital human Lottie enables audience interactions and increases engagement with real-time information and updates from the golf course as well as statistics. Lottie uses a unified conversational interface based on advanced generative AI. The visual representation of Lottie has been improved to make her movements appear more human and allow her to interact more realistically with fans as a physically accurate avatar.
Powerful 5G network
Behind all the technology on site is a new private 5G network, which was implemented for the first time for the Open Championship. It represents a technical advance for the event’s network infrastructure, offering high bandwidth and reliability and bringing the cloud to the edge – for applications that need to access compute, storage and network resources with extremely low latency.
ShotView analyses golf shots
NTT DATA’s ShotView will analyse more than 32,000 golf shots over the course of the four-day tournament. The technology, which is based on a digital twin, tracks the ball, the performance of the players and the conditions on the course in order to create an exact image of the course. The position of the ball can be recorded and displayed with an accuracy of up to half a ball width. All of this provides a “player’s perspective” on the strategies and decisions made at every stage of the tournament. Fans, commentators and analysts experience everything through the eyes of the professionals.
